


Wake Up Call, A

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s03e15 Dead Irish Writers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-06-08
Updated: 2002-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-15 12:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14790651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Josh does some thinking after the Party.





	Wake Up Call, A

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**A Wake Up Call**

**by:** christina

**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters or the West Wing. They belong to Aaron Sorkin  & NBC. If I owned them, I would have taken Susan's suggestion & had Amy meet a bus.

**Category:** Post-Episode, Josh/Donna

**Spoilers:** Big Ones for Dead Irish Writers

**Rating:** TEEN

**Josh's Apartment The Morning After Dr. Bartlet's Birthday Party**

_Josh's POV_

I wake up this morning without a headache. Unlike the women, I didn't get wasted last night, partially because I was too busy figuring out what was going on with Donna being kept out of the party to find time to drink much. I can't say the same for Amy. She'll probably be pretty hung over this morning. 

I glance to my left and see her sleeping there. I've always thought that its funny the way we sleep when we're together. I'm not a big cuddlier or anything, but after two people have sex, they usually at least touch in their sleep. Not Amy and I. We migrate to opposite sides of the bed and stay there all night. Ironically, we don't seem to do much touching at all unless we're having sex. Take tonight at the party for instance, the only time I touched her was on the dance floor. Hell, I touched Donna more than I touched Amy at the party. Although I must say, I had a good reason for not wanting to be close to Amy last night. 

When we first got to the party, everything was fine. We wished the First Lady a happy birthday, and then she commented about how she hadn't yet been thanked for her role in getting Amy and I together. I said that the jury was still out on that one which resulted in me getting a dirty look from Amy. I can't believe she didn't understand that it was a joke. Donna would have understood. 

Speaking of Donna, she was locked out of the party for a while. As soon as the First Lady mentioned her, I left to check on her, not knowing what was going on. I followed her around the bullpen trying to get her to come to the party. I even grabbed her by the waist to pull her in before she told me she was locked out. That was simply unacceptable and I knew that I would have to fix it. Let me just say, Donna looked good last night. I even told her so. 

After getting the ball rolling with INS to find out what was going on with Donna I went back to Amy who seemed no too happy that I had left. Then while we were getting drinks, Chuck came over to talk to me. I introduced to him to Amy and he said that he only knew her by reputation. Sometimes I think that way might be better. Later last night, Amy let it be know that she was offended that I didn't introduce her as my girlfriend rather than simply Amy Gardner. I got the distinct impression that Amy may be as much of a power dater as Congressmen Tandy was, and who's to say that he was using her rather than the other way around. Amy immediately assumed he was referring to her when he mentioned Cross Fire. I've been noticing lately that with Amy, it always seems to be about her. After Chuck left, things began to fall apart. Amy had to know what the thing was. She doesn't work for us so there was really no need for her to know. She pushed, saying that she could be a dame. Amy's not a dame, she's a political operative through and through. Leo once called Mrs. Landingham a real dame. She understood politics but she also knew that there was a line where politics stops. One of those places is at the First Lady's Birthday party. Hell, Donna works for us and she understood this, but Amy kept pushing so I told her that it was about the people I was considering for a senior position on the campaign staff. 

Amy immediately commented that none of them were women. Now let me make it very clear, I have no problem with hiring women in senior positions. I only care about hiring the most qualified person for the job and in this case it just happened to come down to two guys. Amy didn't understand that. With her its all about numbers. I grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor hoping against hope that she would drop it. She didn't. She just kept at it. I also noticed that while she avoided physical contact with me earlier, she got as close as possible while dancing and pleading her case. She needs to understand that just because I like her body, she can't use it to get what she wants. That's not how things in the White House work. 

"Amy, I can make decisions based on the fact that I like your smooth skin," I told her, hoping she'd get the picture. She agreed, but I immediately guessed that she was trying to trick me. She told me she wasn't. I decided to try to give her the benefit of the doubt and play it off like a joke, smiling and saying that I was going to worry about it all night, but Amy wasn't in the mood to play. She's never in the mood to play. With Donna and CJ, I can play, but Amy is all business all the time. A couple seconds later, she mentioned Donna and I immediately when to check on how that situation was going. 

Donna was in my office playing cards when I found her. I felt so bad that she was locked out. For some reason the stupid INS thought she wasn't an American citizen. I told them to fix it right away or start looking for new jobs. They got right on it. 

I brought Donna some olives and shared my drink with her while I explained the situation. Over the past couple weeks, Donna and I have finally gotten back to being us again, and I can't tell you how happy I am about that. She even used my "ya think?" line on me which made me smile. She told me to leave the olives and "go away." I haven't heard that in a long time. In fact, the last time I remember her telling me to go away was after my comment about tough love and equipment. God, that seems like such a long time ago. 

I left Donna in a much better mood, prepared to make nice with Amy and try to forget her pushiness earlier, but before I could find her, Dr. Bartlet found me. Amy went over my head! The only reason I didn't lose it then was because protocol demands that I not do that in front of the First Lady. I took the list of women that Amy had given her and forced myself to reply "you bet" when Dr. Bartlet asked if I was having a good time. I was so not having a good time. I left the good time back in my office with Donna. I stormed over to where Amy was sitting and tossed the list down in front of her. 

"Oh, look it's a list of women," she replied with a smug look. I was exceedingly pissed. 

"Yeah," I said, stating the obvious. 

"She worked fast," Amy said smugly. I couldn't belive that Amy had so little tack that she would do this at a party. 

"Yeah," I said. 

"You love me?" she asked with a challenging look on her face. NO! I don't love Amy, and I'm certain she doesn't love me. We have never used the word love to each other and its just like her to do it now, in a situation where she thinks she's winning. In fact, the only time I recall the word love being used in reference to my relationship with Amy was when Donna asked me if all the lovemaking was keeping me up all night. What Amy and I do is not lovemaking, trust me. Its sex, plain and simple. Its usually good sex, but its nothing more than that. See in our relationship we don't talk about much more than politics and when we talk about that, we usually end up fight. At the end of the fight, we have make-up sex. In fact, I can think of very few times when we slept together when it wasn't make up sex. 

"You went over my head, and behind my back," I accused her. I don't remember the last time I was this upset with someone I was dating, and Amy didn't seem to care. 

"I'm quite the contortionist, aren't I?" she asked with her smug grin again. I can think of a few other words for her. I started to launch into the reasons that the First Lady should have no jurisdiction over the hiring of campaign staff when the First Lady walked up. She asked Amy to join her in drinking, and Amy immediately jumped at the chance.

"You're going?" I asked in amazement. She tells me I'm the terrible one at relationships! At least I wanted to clear the air and work this out. She gives me some shit about writing a book and I'm still not sure whether she was joking or not. 

"Amy…." I started to say, hoping that she would stay and talk about this so she would understand why I was pissed and why she couldn't pull shit like this anymore. 

"You're beeping," she replied as my pager when off and then left without another word for me. I walked out side, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed the number on my pager, pacing in an attempt to cool my Amy induced rage. 

"This is Josh Lyman. Someone there paged me," I said when the person on the other end picked up. 

"Yes, Mr. Lyman, this is the INS. We just wanted to let you know that the situation with Miss. Moss has been cleared up, and she's been allowed to enter the party," the man told me. 

"Is she in there now?" I asked, looking through the window in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Donna, but failing to actually see her. 

"Yes, the secret service has already allowed her entry. Let me just apologize again for the confusion," he said but I cut him off as I hung up to go search for Donna, hoping that she would put me in a better mood. I walked across the room looking for her until I finally spotted her dancing with Lord John Marbury. I swear to God that lunatic Brit better not be talking about her breasts because unlike the restraint the President showed earlier, I would probably hit him. I walk up and tap his shoulder, asking if I can cut in. 

"Well, that's up to this lovely lady," John replied. 

"Donna?" I asked hopefully. 

"Well, you're not royalty, but I'll dance with you, Josh," Donna said with a smile. Lord John kissed her hand and then left us alone to dance. I took Donna in my arms and felt my bad mood begin to disappear. 

"He wasn't talking about your breasts, was he?" I asked. What? I was just making sure he didn't step over the bounds with Donna. 

"No, what makes you ask that?" Donna asked with a laugh. 

"Well, he made a couple comments about the First Lady's chest and I just wanted to make sure he wasn't making a habit out of it," I said.

"Well, you can rest easy Josh. He didn't say a word about my breasts," Donna told me. "He did however, say that he noticed that my ass looked lovely in my dress tonight." What? He said that to Donna. I think I'll be having a talk with him later in the evening. He shouldn't be talking that way to my Donna. I mean, my assistant, Donna.

"Now, Josh, don't get all protective on me. It was a compliment. I was glad to hear that my dress made my ass look good," Donna said. I considered telling her that her ass looks good regardless of what she is wearing but somehow didn't think that would be appropriate considering that I am dating Amy. I must have gotten the irritated look back on my face when I though about Amy because Donna picked up on the idea that I was questioning something. Donna however though it was her ass looking good in the dress that I was questioning. 

"You don't think my ass looks good in this dress?" she asked. Oh shit. There really is no good way to answer that question. If I say yes it looks good, she'll know I looked. If I say no it doesn't look good, she'll be hurt and I'd be lying. I stand there for a minute trying to decide what to say. Donna takes my silence as a negative and shifts her hips and cranes her neck around to get a look at her butt so she can decide for herself how it looks. In the process, she gave me a good view and I had to try to force my self not to think of Donna as more than a friend. I've had to fight those feeling down a lot and this was not helping the situation. 

"No, I think it looks great, I just didn't think he should be saying it," I finally confess. She smiles at me, one of those huge smiles that I used to see a hundred times a day and that I've missed so much in the past few months. We stand there dancing very close, smiling at each other as I breath in her scent. See, this is how I wanted the whole night to go. I jus wanted to relax with a beautiful woman who's company I love in my arms and forget about politics for a few hours. I closed my eyes and inhaled the smell of her hair. God, this is what I've needed, but when I opened my eyes, I realized that the hair I had buried my face in was blond rather than brown. The woman I was holding in my arms was not the woman I came with. I'm not supposed to feel this way about Donna. I'm with Amy, I reminded myself although I could not work up any excitement about it. I tried to shake some sense into myself as the song ended. I wasn't being fair to Amy and I shouldn't be feeling this way about Donna. 

"Donna, will you go find Amy? Tell he I'm looking for her," I asked. Donna looked slightly hurt and I began to think that maybe she feels something for me too. Something we both know we shouldn't be feeling, but she did as I asked and left to find Amy. When Donna left, I found myself banging my head against a table until Sam walked up. I couldn't explain everything to Sam yet. Hell, I don't even know exactly what's going on myself. All I know is I'm not sure I like my girlfriend, and I'm pretty sure I like Donna more than I should. 

"Looks like there's trouble in paradise," Sam said as he pulled up a chair. 

"Sam, do you remember why you said that you and Lisa broke up?" I asked.

"Yeah, because she didn't like me very much," Sam replied. 

"Well, I think Amy and I might have the same problem, and I think it's a mutual dislike," I confessed. 

"Josh, I've been in a relationship like that. If you're sure that's what's going on, don't stick it out," Sam advised me. 

"I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be hit and run Josh," I told him.

"That's a stupid ass reason to stick around. When you meet the right one, it won't be a hit and run thing," Sam said before leaving me to my thoughts. I've got to give it one more chance. I can't break off the first relationship I've had in a couple years because of what she did tonight. Besides, after we talk tonight, I'm sure she'll see that she was in the wrong and not do it again, right? I sat there waiting for Amy to come find me for a while, but she never showed up. I began to think that maybe I could break it off if she didn't even have the decency to come talk to me about it. I quickly changed my mind again. I wasn't going to let Amy be right about me, and I decided that I would give this relationship one more chance. After a while, I got frustrated with waiting for Amy and went to check on the INS situation again for Donna to make sure everything was official. I found out that she has to take some stupid ass test which I'm sure she'll pass with flying colors. I went off in search of her to let her know the good news. 

I finally spotted Donna standing at the back of the room. I hurried in her direction. 

"Excuse me," I said, trying to get to Donna as quickly as possible. 

"Yes," I heard a woman's voice say as I passed. 

"Donna," I say in an excited voice. Then the voice I had just heard say "yes" registered. It was Amy. Crap, she's going to be pissed that I ignored her and went to Donna first. "Actually, first of all Amy," I corrected, turning around to find a pissed look on Amy's face. I lowered my voice and said "I understand and I forgive you," thinking that that would make her happy. Boy was I wrong. 

"You forgive me?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"I do," see I even swallowed my pride and said it again. 

"What the hell kind of thing…." Amy stared, but the First Lady cut her off by saying her name. 

"Thank you for forgiving me Josh. I appreciate that," Amy said in a monotone voice. She's proud of herself and not the least bit sorry. 

"No problem," I say. I have no idea how this is going to work. I though I could forgive her, but I at least thought she'd have the decency to realize she was in the wrong. 

"Jackass," I heard her say. Yeah, my girlfriend is a bitch. I decided to ignore it and turned to Donna. 

I explained the INS situation to hear, but the First Lady had already arranged for the Canadian National Anthem to play. I broke into a huge smile at that. Apparently Donna had done something that impressed the First Lady. I'll have to ask her about that later. I dutifully stood my Amy while the song played although it was Donna that I wanted to be by. I spent another hour at the party sitting at the table with Amy, watching Donna dance with Toby, Charlie, Sam, Leo, and others. She seemed to be having a much better time than I was, although she kept looking over at me. We she started dancing with people other than our friends, I felt that familiar tug at my heart that I get when she goes out with local gomers. Luckily, I didn't have to try to talk to Amy much while all this was going on since she had told me not to talk to her. Yeah, there was a surprise. I seem to get that from her a lot. 

"Are you ready to go?" Amy finally asks. No, I want to go dance with Donna, but since I can't do that, leaving would be the next best thing. 

"Yeah," I say grabbing my coat. I said good bye to a few people and then walked over to Donna for a second while Amy said good bye to a few people I didn't care about. 

"Good night Donna. I'm glad I could fix everything for you," I told her. 

"Night Josh. Do you want me to call you in the morning?" she asked with a look in Amy's direction. 

"Yeah, call me in the morning," I told her before turning around to go get Amy. 

I drove us back to my apartment since she had met me there and left her car. I figured that since she was pissed at me, she's go home and leave me to sort things our. Didn't happen that way. She followed me inside, apparently ready to talk this time. 

We yelled at each other for a while before Amy announced that she was ready for bed. That's how are fights always end, in bed. I was going to protest that for once, maybe we should talk when Amy grabbed me and kissed me hard. Her hands start pulling at the tie that Donna had so neatly fixed on one of my earlier trips to the bullpen. Again, I wanted to protest, but I was weak and just let my body take over. 

After a quick fuck, and trust me that's all it was for either of us, Amy rolled on her side to look at me. 

"So you'll think about hiring one of those women I suggested," she said. I was completely floored. I dumbly nodded as things began to fall into place in my head while Amy rolled over and fell right asleep as far away from me as she could physically be. 

Amy's a power dater. She doesn't care about me, she cares only about my position and what it can do for her. She's not at all what I want. What I want is someone that because of our respective positions I'm not supposed to want. What I want spent the night dancing in the arms of other men and there was nothing I could do about it. What I want is the one woman who can make any day bright for me regardless of all the shit that's going on around us. What I want is the woman twelve years my junior who takes care of me in every situation from being shot to abusing my sensitive system to nearly being fired. What I want is the one person in the entire world who makes trivia interesting for me. What I want is the woman who refuses to bring me coffee and matches my every witty remark. What I want is the woman who knows how to set work aside and play every once in a while. What I want, my good political sense should advise against, but I don't care because what I want is Donna Moss and I don't care what it takes to get her. Having stayed up all night having this revelation, I am lying in bed wondering what the hell I'm doing by having Amy in it with me when my phone rings. I smile as I pick up the phone. 

"Hello," I say into the phone. 

"I just wanted to make sure you got your wake up call," I hear Donna say on the other end of the line. Yep, this is the voice I want to hear every morning. 

"I got it loud and clear," I assure her knowing that I mean more than just this phone call. 

"Good. So I'll see you at work tomorrow," she says since today is Sunday and we don't have to go into the office. 

"Actually Donna, what are you doing tonight?" I ask, hoping she didn't make plans with someone she met last night. 

"Nothing special. Why?" she asks. 

"I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me," I say. 

"What about Amy?" Donna asks. 

"I'll tell you about it tonight, but let's just say that Amy is no longer an issue," I say. 

"Okay. Pick me up at 7," she says. 

"Okay," I say with a smile. 

"Oh and Josh, look at the clock on your phone because as I've told you before, your watch sucks," she says. See this is what is need, not what's still lying in my bed. I assure her that I will before hanging up the phone and going to do what I should have done weeks ago, break up with Amy. It might have taken me a while, but I finally got the wake up call I needed. 


End file.
